Our response to His Love

Recently, I've been listening to many sermons that seem to have similar messages. Recently I've been reading passages that have similar themes. Recently, I've been convicted more and more about my own sin, and more and more captivated by God's love. Recently, I've felt this grave need to share with those around me, the danger of coasting through the Christian life. The danger of not perservering.

I read chapters like Revelation 3:15-17 - "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, "I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."

Matthew 19:24 -"...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Hebrews 6:4-6 - "It is impossible for those who have once become enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace."

Matthew 7:13-14 - "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

John 5:44 - "How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God?"

2 Corinthians 5:10 - For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Matthew 16:27 - "The Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and will then recompense every person according to his deeds."

Revelation 22:12 - "Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to every person according to what he has done"

Romans 6:1-2 - "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?"

Philippians 2:12-13 - "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed--not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence -- continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."

James 2:26 - "Faith without works is dead."

Galatians 5:19-21 - "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

James 4:4 - "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."

John 5:29 - "An hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment."

Matthew 7:21-23 - "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"

This is just the tip of the iceberg where in the Bible, we see stern, strong warnings to people over and over again about the dangers of sin, the calls to repentance, and the reality of the fact that many people who profess faith are in fact not true believers.

This issue really hit me like a ton of bricks when I heard a sermon by Matt Chandler about 5 months ago. I can't remember the passage he was preaching on, but he went off on a little sidenote, and began to describe some "red flags" to watch out for. He said that if you say "yes" to these things, these are red flags that might prove that you aren't truly saved. He didn't say they were certainties, but warnings and causes to evaluate your life. Immediately, when I heard this, I got very worried. What if he says something that applies to me? Well, it'll probably be towards nominal Christians, and that's certainly not me...The first red flag: "Is there habitual sin in your life?" Crash!! Floored by the first point. Now by nature I think I have an addictive personality, and I've come to realize that and have since tried to develop practical ways to fight against that, but that doesn't excuse the fact that I do have sins in my life that seem to be constant struggles, and I very rarely win. Now Chandler was quick to distinguish habitual sin, from a struggle. I do believe that I did have a struggle, not just giving in, but to be honest, my struggle was pretty weak.

Well, needless to say, this sermon stuck in my head for a long time. It really shook me. I started re-evaluating everything. I started looking at how comfortable I had become with my sinful life. How normal it felt to me. After all, no one's perfect. And we're not saved by works, but by faith, so to worry too much about my sin would be disbelieving in the mercy and grace of God...so I thought...but after that sermon, I've been bombarded time and time again by pastors and passages that make it very clear that your life proves your commitment to Christ. I started looking at what Paul says in Romans 6:2 "We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" Am I really dead to sin? Am I really living the life that the scriptures say a Christian will live?

And I had to come to a very harsh reality. If I continue to live the way I was living, I'm proving that my faith is dead, and not true. I'm proving that it has no effect on me. Now once again, this doesn't mean that I am trusting in myself to get right before God. I'm not saying that at all. There are I'm sure many times more verses that speak of the imputed righteousness of God to us than there are the verses I mentioned in the beginning. But I had to come to grips with the reality of my salvation. If I am truly saved, what does it look like?

Well first of all, I must acknowledge God in everything. That like Philippians 2:12-13, and 1 Corinthians 15:10 says, any good thing I do, any love for God that I have, any denial of sin and praise of Christ, comes solely through the grace of God who is at work in me. So right away, I am dismantling the idea that I can somehow attain a righteousness by works. Because any of my righteous acts come from God through faith in Christ. Anyone who would claim to be able to satisfy God's righteous wrath with their works needs only to be turned to Isaiah 64:6, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags..." So nothing in and of myself can earn me any merrit with God. We are saved by faith, not works.

But if that's the case, then where do works fit in? Why does James say that faith without works is dead. Why does Jesus say that those who did good deeds will arise to the ressurection of life, and those with bad deeds to a ressurection of judgement. In Romans 2:6 says, "God "will give to each person according to what he has done." Why, if we are justified by faith, does the Bible place so much emphasis on what we do?

The key to understanding this is realizing the correct order. Faith plus works does not equal salvation. Rather, faith produces good works. In a sense, our deeds are our proof of our faith and salvation. You can't have true saving faith without any fruit. A tree that does not bear any fruit is a dead tree. Piper describes is best this way by saying that the assurance of the genuiness of our faith is our perserverence to the end. That's why Hebrews 6 isn't saying that people can lose their salvation, but rather, if they fall away, they are proving that they were never really saved in the first place.

Now passages like Romans 2:6, John 5:29, and 2 Corinthians 5:10 present fairly untapped reservoirs of truth in my life, that I think some people might find offensive upon first glance. When it comes to the last judgement, the Bible I think is very clear that EVERYONE will be judged. Paul says WE must appear before the judgement seat in 2 Corinthians 5:10. Not just the unbelievers, but all people. Some people seem to think that God will just skip over the Christians, since they are declared righteous by Christ's atonement. But these passages seem to indicate something different. All of these passages mention our "deeds." They mention our works as the criteria for which we will be judged. That doesn't seem right does it? That doesn't sound like the message we're used to. So what does it mean then?

Please just read this excerpt from Piper's sermon. He explains it much better than I can.


That leads us to the second purpose of the judgment. The first, was that the judgment makes a public demonstration of the varying degrees of reward that Christians receive for the exercise of their faith in obedience. The second purpose of the judgment is to declare openly the reality of the faith and the salvation of God's people by the evidence of their deeds. Salvation is owned by faith. Salvation is shown by deeds. So when Paul says (in v. 10) we "will be recompensed . . . according to what we have done," he not only means that our rewards will accord with our deeds, but also our salvation will accord with our deeds.

Why do I think this?

Romans 2:5-7

There are numerous texts that point in this direction. One is in Paul's letter to the Romans (2:5-7) where he refers to "The revelation of the righteous judgment of God," and then says (in vv. 6-8), "[God] will render to every man according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality [he will render] eternal life; but to those who . . . do not obey the truth . . . [he will render] wrath and indignation." In other words, just as our text says, the judgment is "according to what a person has done." But here the issue is eternal life versus wrath.

"Faith Without Works Is Dead"

Several times Paul listed certain kinds of deeds and said, "those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). In other words when these deeds are exposed at the judgment as a person's way of life, they will be the evidence that their faith is dead and they will not be saved. As James said in James 2:26, "Faith without works is dead." That is what will be shown at the judgment.

Jesus' Words

Jesus put it like this—and he used exactly the same words for good and evil deeds that we have here in 2 Corinthians 5:10. He said (in John 5:29), "An hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment." In other words the way one lived will be the evidence whether one passes through judgment to life or whether one experiences judgment as condemnation.
He says this even though five verses earlier in John 5:24 he said, "Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes has eternal life." To hear and to believe is to have eternal life—it is by grace through faith. But when that faith is real—not dead—the life will change and Jesus can say, with no contradiction: the deeds of this life will be the public criteria of judgment in the resurrection. Because our works are the evidence of the reality of our faith. And it is faith in Christ that saves.


Back to me now. So as you see, "our works are the evidence of the reality of our faith. And it is faith in Christ that saves." So this is what I have been wrestling with over the past 5 months. Is my faith real? Does my life show it? And by the grace of God I can say that he has comforted me in this issue, and given me assurance. And by the grace of God I have come to realize that we MUST fight sin and make war against it, because eternal life DEPENDS ON IT!!! If I stop fighting, I'm proving my faith was never real. I've gotta run the race with endurance and perservere to the end, because if I wimp out half way through, it's like I never started to begin with. I gotta throw off every sin and encumberance that would keep me from running, because this is all that matters. I've gotta get MORE SERIOUS about my life. And by the grace of God I have gotten more serious. If you've been reading my blog hopefully you're aware of that. I just needed to say, "If Christ truly is living in me, and I truly have been made a new creation, and I am dead to sin and alive in Christ, that will make a difference, that MUST make a difference." I've gotta work out my salvation with fear and trembling. I've gotta.

Now lest you think that this has become me white-knuckling my fight against sin, just saying, "I'm not gonna sin, I'm not gonna sin!" Think again. This is not a fight I wage alone. No, I wage is with many weapons. I put on the full armor of God, and I wage it with God by my side. We can not say to ourselves, "I've gotta get this sin issue under control before I can come to God." No! God is saying, "Let's work together. Remember, I'm working in you to will and to act. Come to me and drink deep from the fountain of life."

Most importantly, I can't fight sin, unless I fight it in Christ, and here's what I mean by that:

"THE FIGHT AGAINST SIN IS A FIGHT FOR JOY IN CHRIST!"

God doesn't want begrudging obedience. Piper gave a great illustration of making his son wash his car before he could drive it. His son was furious at him, but did it anyway. Do you think Piper was happy with his son's obedience? Of course not, because it wasn't done in love. In the same way, God doesn't want our obedience to come from a place that isn't ultimately satisfied in Christ alone. David in Psalm 51 says "Restore unto me the joy of my salvation." Why? Because when that joy fades, he falls into sin. The more and more you become satisfied with Christ, the more and more repugnant sin becomes to you. And that's what I've realized. And so, I want Christ always. I need him always. I want to be completely satisfied in him alone, and if anything comes in my path that would lead me away from him, it's gotta go! There is nothing neutral in this life. As Chandler said, it's not an idea of right and wrong when it comes to what we can do. It's a matter of , "DOES THIS HELP ME RUN?" Does this draw me closer to Christ. If not, it's gotta go, because Christ is all that matters to me.

There's so much more I want to say. But I'll end with this. If I have become this aware of the danger of sin, the danger of being a lukewarm Christian, which Jesus is going to spit out, which means that a lukewarm Christian is really a lukewarm non-Christian, are others aware of this? Are others aware of the serious nature of our life, and how a fight against sin is a fight to preserve our lives! This isn't merely just so we can get a few more rewards in Heaven. This is about acceptance into Heaven! Now I don't deny that God will give more to those who have been more faithful, as the parable of the talents shows us, but that parable also shows us the danger of doing nothing with his gifts. As Matthew 25:30 says, "And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Does that sound like he was accepted into Heaven? It doesn't to me. And I'm afraid that so many people who confess Christ with their lips but deny with him their actions are in for a very terrible wake-up call on the judgement day. And as others have said, it's not like people want to go to Hell or are even perhaps aware of the fact that their faith is dead. People don't go to church every week because they think they're not really believers. And yet, many aren't. This is scary stuff. And as Piper says, he wouldn't be loving his church if he didn't show people that some of them were going to Hell. People hate to have their assurance threatened, but many many of us need that. Desperately. I know I did. I am so grateful to these men who have challenged me to see if my faith is really true. And by God's grace it is. But I needed that test to show me that it is. And if I slump back into laziness, I need another good slap in the face to say, "MARK!! Don't realize that this is going to lead you to Hell!!" Piper said that he counseled some guy who was in adultery and was unrepentant about it and had no plan to stop, and that's exactly what he told the guy. And the guy said, but I accepted Christ, so all my sins are forgiven. But he's showing that he never really accepted Christ to begin with.

And I'm afraid that way too many people are trusting in some prayer they prayed 10, 20, or 30 years ago, but that now, their lives show no evidence of it's effects. So recently, I've been trying to encourage my friends to be serious about pursuing Holiness. Serious about actively engaging with God everyday. Salvation is a relationship with God. How can you say you have salvation if you're never with God in prayer and the Bible? You can't. And yet so many people do. Oh how I weep for those who are headed to the place where God will say, "I never knew you." I feel this sense of urgency now. A similar urgency for those who have never heard of Christ. I feel the same urgency for those who grew up with Christ, and yet have never made it real.

One more thing that scares me is the lack of affection for Christ in most Christians. So often, I just want someone to share my affection for Christ, and I try to bring it up with people, and I just feel like so many are not getting me. Shouldn't it be that when one Christian is totally fired up about the things of God, the other Christian should resound with an Amen? Am I wrong on this? Am I expecting too much from people to want to engage on that level with me? And I'm not saying everyone doesn't, or that they should at all times. There are many factors to why sometimes they may not, but if they never do, that's definitely saying something about their heart. Now I am not saying that everyone I talk to is this way. In fact, I have so many Christian friends who encourage me in my faith and we are friends mainly because of our united heart for Christ. And I owe so much of my faith and life in Christ to the ministry of so many Christian friends in my life. They have helped my sanctification so much, and I would not be where I am today, unless I had an amazing group of Christians around me building me up. For those of you who have been my close brother and sister in Christ, your friendship is worth more to me than you can ever imagine, and I will praise God for eternity for bringing you guys into my life.

Now there once again is much more I want to say, but I've already written way too much as it is. I haven't even begun to talk about how community plays into this, and how much I've been pressed recently to realize the essential nature of community in the Christian walk. But anyway yeah, those are a few of my thoughts, and I hope that if you are in Christ, that you would take seriously the fight of faith, and to make your election sure (2 Peter 1:10)and encourage your brothers and sisters to do the same!

Here's a Piper clip about the heart of a Christian, and how our hearts should be oriented towards Christ if we truly are in Christ! Our affection should ultimately be for Christ.